Robert F. Smith’s historic promise to pay off approximately $40 million in student loans by 2019 graduates of Morehouse College will be a game–changer for the 396 graduates of one of our nation’s most prestigious historically black colleges and universities. But missing from the coverage of Smith’s unprecedented generosity is a crucial question about the value of higher education in the United States: How did it become normal for fewer than 400 students to accumulate $40 million in student loan debt?

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